Skills: what do we want students to be able to do?

Skills are best developed in the context of authentic stiuations such as those offered through the PYP units of inquiry. In order to be well prepared students for life-long learning, students need to master a whole range of skills beyond those normally referred to as basic. Skills should be interepreted in expectation according to the appropriatness for the group of learners.

The PYP transdisciplinary skills are:

Thinking skills
  • acquistion of knowledge
  • comprehension
  • application
  • analysis
  • synthesis
  • evaluation
  • dialectical thought
  • metacognition

Social skills
  • accepting responsibility
  • respecting others
  • cooperating
  • resolving conflict
  • group-decision-making
  • adopting a vaiety of group-roles

Communication skills
  • listening
  • speaking
  • reading
  • writing
  • viewing
  • presenting
  • non-verbal communication

Self-management skills
  • gross motor skills
  • fine motor skills
  • spatial awareness
  • organization
  • time management
  • safety
  • healthy life-style
  • coders of behaviour
  • informed choices

Research skills
  • formulating questions
  • observing
  • planning
  • collecting data
  • recording data
  • organizing data
  • interpreting data
  • presenting research findings

Making the PYP Happen: a curriculum framework for international primary education